Managing Troops of Gibblets
by Dixie Dewdrop
Summary: After a job injury, Jethro Gibbs finds himself using every ounce of his training to stay a step above his four very distinctive children: Tony, Kate, Tim, and Abby.
1. Establishing Rank

Establishing Rank

The good Dr. Ducky Mallard stood firmly after rendering his decision, his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted decisively on the floor, determined to stare down his friend.

NCIS Team Leader and Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, seated on a vacant autopsy table and evidently displeased, grasped the table's edge so tightly with both fists that the veins stood out on his hands.

Nearly thirty seconds passed before Gibbs angrily resigned himself to Dr. Mallard's orders. Scowling, he slid off of the table with ill grace and narrowed eyes.

"You win, but I hope you realize that thanks to your mollycoddling in refusing to let me work, criminals have been given a free day."

With that pronouncement and a glare for good measure, he stalked angrily towards the elevator.

Not deterred, nor guilt ridden in the least, Ducky followed, and reached over to push the elevator button for the bullpen.

In his best no- nonsense tone he warned, "You have exactly one hour to tie up loose ends. I will meet you at home and plan to give you the sedative and pain killer there. Past experience proves that you will succumb quite thoroughly."

Gibbs frowned as he stepped into the open elevator, "Exactly, which means you are clear that you are keeping me from my job."

Refusing to accept blame, Ducky responded, "You have a competent team who can weather your absence, my Dear Man."

Jethro did not bother to waste energy contradicting that conclusion, but used the time in the elevator to solidify his plans instead. Bad luck had gotten him injured at a crime scene a little over an hour before, and not satisfied with merely a band aid treatment, Dr. Mallard had given him the choice of going home and resting with a sedative, or having the doctor pronounce him not medically fit for work for a few days.

Gibbs rubbed his chin. Despite his grandfatherly, sympathetic bearing, Dr. Donald Ducky Mallard possessed a will of iron which he exhibited upon occasion.

This, then, proved one of those.

Departing from the lift he glanced over at his team. Tony and Kate huddled at Tony's desk, pretending to read something on the computer screen. At his own desk, McGee leaned almost doubled out of his rolling chair, focused on his left shoe. Abby, who should have been in the forensics lab, had evidently come to Tim's aid, because she leaned over his desk and offered support, "Yank a bit harder, Tim."

Without breaking stride Gibbs pivoted to his desk, grabbed his belongings, and strode back the way he had come, calling over his shoulder, "Kate and Tony, get over there right now and help get the glue off the bottom of McGee's shoes. There had better be none on that carpet, either. Then finish up the Murray case before you leave here today. I am heading out of the building."

All four looked up in surprise, while four shocked voices called out questions simultaneously. He ignored all of them and made his way to his car and home without pausing.

When Ducky arrived an hour later Jethro had actually sat down on the couch, though he had done so by moving gingerly to not upset his bruised ribs. In addition, he had propped his leg on the coffee table, trying to ease some of the cramps radiating fiercely through it.

He shook his head thoughtfully. The fall he had suffered at the crime site arose only after he had both chased and tackled a suspect.

He was getting too old to run down the bad guys.

It would have been wiser to allow Tony, Tim, or Kate the bad guy takedown.

His twisted knee and banged up ribs and body illustrated that.

Nevertheless, he had no intention of allowing the good doctor to think he agreed with Ducky's medical decision. Scowling, he prodded, "Hurry up then, Duck, because you know that I have a team to supervise."

Smiling sympathetically, Ducky contradicted him. "Jethro, the troops will survive without you for a single afternoon. You have trained them to function as investigative agents."

For once, Ducky gave him instructions and handed him the bottle of pills to address future pain without too much of a lecture.

Seeing his friend wince when he eased onto the couch beside him he spoke seriously. "Pills are for tomorrow and the days after that. Today you need an injection first."

Swabbing Jethro's arm with alcohol he warned, "This injection will knock you out. It is very potent, my friend. I will check on you later in the evening and see if you need anything."

**Gibbs nodded in resignation and leaned his head back against the sofa's back. They had been down that road before.**

"Who used this glue without my permission?" Gunny Gibbs demanded in his someone- is- in- big- trouble tone as he entered the kitchen, eyeing all four of his children.

Simultaneously, they looked up from their bowls of cereal, shook their heads, and with four voices, immediately denied culpability.

He narrowed his eyes and regarded them shrewdly, attempting to narrow the focus of the suspect list quickly so that he could deal with the transgressor.

Glue- or its misuse, ranked as a big deal in this household. Necessity demanded his vigilance. If he had told them once, he had told them a thousand times that the use of glue, scissors, markers, crayons, pens of any type and colored pencils required his direct supervision and prior permission!

Tony, his eight year old, studied him cannily. When his dad returned the same speculative look, the child slowly grinned. Cute as he was with long lashes framing shimmery green eyes and brown hair streaked with blond, Tony, the older brother, had a penchant as a ringleader.

Gibbs gave him a quick second look and licked his lips thoughtfully. He sometimes jumped to conclusions unfairly and held Tony accountable more often than he did with the other children.

For example, just weeks before he had ordered him not to speak during a car ride because of name calling, for labeling Tim a snuffleupagus and Kate stupid.

Reflecting upon the incident hours later, though, Jethro realized that Kate had called Tony stupid first, but he had neglected to address that.

He had failed to treat his son fairly then, and did not want a repeat.

It was difficult to not automatically look the boy's way the second he suspected trouble in his ranks, Gibbs knew.

His vision lit on his little Abby next, his chatterbox and baby girl. At five, she oozed self confidence and charmed everyone she met. Blessed with a sunny disposition, she spent most of her days laughing or dancing, though she did posses a strong will and fiery temper.

Currently she sat on her legs in her booster seat, leaning her tummy onto the table to reach over her cereal bowl. She used one hand to arrange the pieces of cereal in the milk.

Gibbs snapped his fingers and she guiltily snatched her hand from the bowl, looking up in surprise. He raised his eyebrows and she slid back down to sit correctly in her seat.

In return, she puffed out her lip and narrowed her green eyes in displeasure at the ending of her fun. Swishing her head from side to side, she caused her black pigtails to swing. "I want to go to Grandpa's today. Grandpa's sweet."

"Not until next week," Kate responded sensibly from across the table. "We have to wait for the vacation time."

Tony sat back in his seat and added excitedly, "So we will have lots of snow, and it will be Christmas break and we can play outside all day long." Tony loved any type of outdoor play.

The patient father massaged his temples and returned to his examination of Abby.

Did she look any guiltier or likelier to be the culprit than the other three?

Tim upset his juice glass at that moment and slid out of his seat to grab it, nearly knocking over the chair. Luckily, he had nearly drained the liquid, so just a flew drops flew, but the accident clearly upset him. "Daddy, I am sorry! I knocked it over without looking and then I tried to grab it and…"

Kate interrupted in her rudest tone, "Be quiet, Timmy. He saw the whole thing anyway. Just stop jabbering a minute so we can finish eating."

Tim stood indecisively, empty glass in hand, and glanced uncertainly between his big sister and his father. His eyes began to fill with tears.

"Not nice, Katie," Tony frowned her way, pointing towards Tim.

Sighing heavily, Gibbs motioned to his youngest son, and Tim hurried over and threw himself at his father, burying his head in his Jethro's stomach and wrapping his little arms around his dad's legs. Face hidden, he began to cry in the safety of his father's embrace and protection.

Of his four children, Tim had been born the most easygoing, yet he possessed a very sensitive streak and a steady, serious nature. He tended to step aside to allow the spotlight to focus on Abby, Kate, or Tony, and rarely sought recognition.

Gibbs stroked his hair, which appeared determined to remain a dark, sandy blond, and then leaned down and lifted the six year old into his arms. Holding his little boy against his chest, Jethro patted the child's back and whispered soothingly, assuring him that the spilled glass was just an accident.

When the tears finally began to slow, Gibbs shifted Tim to one hip, and mentally dismissed the little fellow from the roster of possible glue troublemakers. He felt pretty confident that Tim would have confessed at once when the question was asked had he been the guilty party.


	2. Supervising Drills

Supervising Drills

He had eliminated three potential criminals. That left Kate, his seven year old daughter.

Gibbs regarded her appraisingly and she regarded him right back. At seven she possessed an almost regal bearing, resulting from her natural grace and poise. Her shade of hair fell between Tony's light brown and Abby's dark, almost black color. Like Tim, Kate was a bit more reserved, and did not share the same flair for charm that graced her older brother and baby sister.

Jethro licked his lips and pounced. "Kate, how many times have you been told that you do not help yourself to items from my desk without my explicit permission?"

She blanched, and he congratulated himself for determining the culprit in a matter of minutes.

Kate steepled her hands on the table in front of her and licked her lips.

"I asked you a question," he prodded.

"Daddy, I asked you when you were taking a shower and I thought you said yes," she offered lamely in defense.

Even little Abby turned an incredulous expression her way at that ridiculous excuse.

"Ok, well then that answers that," Jethro's voice rose. "Now, young lady, since you deliberately disobeyed my instructions, I am confining you to your room for the next half hour. Instead of watching cartoons with your sister and brothers, you will use that time to think about why you are punished."

Kate slid out of her seat and approached her father, hoping to get him to take back his decision. Cartoon watching was anticipated all week long.

"Please, Daddy, I…"

Gibbs interrupted and pointed to the stairs, "In addition, you are spending thirty additional minutes in your room for not telling me the truth when asked. Do not come out of your bedroom until I tell you to do so, young lady."

Sliding from her seat and walking slowly, Kate nevertheless obeyed. Pausing at the first step she asked, "How long did you say I have to stay?"

Gibbs tilted up Tim's chin and regarded him. "How much is half an hour plus thirty minutes, Tim?"

"An hour," the little boy responded promptly.

"Brilliant," Gibbs praised, then set him on the floor and lightly smacked his bottom. "Kate, upstairs, now, and the three of you start clearing the table and putting the dishes by the sink if you want to watch those cartoons."

Fifteen minutes later he checked on his three television watchers. Saturday mornings he allowed them a couple of hours of mindless viewing before he corralled them and ran errands. It made him feel guilty, farming them out to the television to babysit Saturday mornings, but his sanity depended upon completing some chores without their interference.

As soon as Tony spied him peeping into the room he called excitedly, "Watch this, Dad, watch me!"

Before Jethro could utter a sound Tony pulled himself to his feet on the sofa cushion, hopped onto the back frame, then vaulted through the air and over the coffee table.

Landing with a flourish, he threw out his arms dramatically and winked at the observers, "A bow, ladies and gentlemen, for the world's next, most brilliant, all around sportsman!"

Beaming with pride at her older brother and his spectacular trick, Abby clapped enthusiastically. "Do it again, Tony! I want to see you do it again."

Tim hastily scrambled to his feet and hurried to the couch. "I want to jump, too! Show me how you do that."

Emphatically waving his finger no at the younger son, his dad nipped that into the bud before turning to regard his oldest.

"Good move, Son, but if you jump over the furniture in the house again you will bring trouble from me down on your head. That furniture will tear up if you treat it like playground equipment. It was not built for roughhousing."

Noting the flash of disappointment that crossed the child's face he added to his objection. "Besides, Ducky asked me yesterday to give him one weekend off from having to come treat, bandage, stitch, examine, or heal one of you four. Of course all of us know that you, Tony, are the cause of ninety seven percent of his housecalls, while your siblings together make the additional three percent."

Tony flashed his father a dazzling smile. "Ok, got it, Boss man, but that still was a smooth hurdle vault and one day I will be famous all over the world."

Gibbs could not help but grin as he motioned him towards the door. "Come on, then, Superstar, and start getting ready for today's errands."

"I want candy, Daddy, when we get to the store," Abby informed him, hurrying to grab his hand and swinging it with excitement. "Lots of candy, Daddy, because I am a sweet girl and I am pretty."

Hastening to catch up, Tim warned his little sister, "You know Ducky said too much sugar is bad for our teeth and that…."

Catching Tony's annoyed signal he faltered, "that, uhm, we will get cavities…"

With his continuation of warning not stilled by Tony's gesture, Abby could not contain her displeasure. "Hush talking Timmy, 'cause you just make me mad!"

That provided the final straw before all three dissolved into a loud squabble, and short of patience, their father raised his voice and ordered absolute silence. That did the trick, and he sent them upstairs to get their shoes.

With a start he realized that he had forgotten banishing Kate. Jogging up behind them he found Kate sitting by the window in her room, and he took a seat on the edge of her bed.

He regarded her expectantly, waiting for her to acknowledge her timeout.

She frowned at him, instead, and traced her forefinger along the sill of the window.

Pressed for time he commanded, "Tell me what got you sent to your room this morning."

His daughter regarded him steadily, and he felt a flash of pride at her confidence. "I did not ask permission to get any glue," she admitted.

"And," her father prodded, relaxing his posture and smiling at her to continue.

"And you told us we can only use glue when you are watching us use it." She took a breath. "And then I should have told you the truth but I did not."

"That's right, but I punished you, and I think you understand now that I expect you to follow the rules. Now, I want you to get ready because we are heading out for groceries."

Kate tilted her head to the side and then smiled softly at him. Evidently she had anticipated a far longer verbal chastisement.

Relieved, she slid off of her seat and straightened the skirt of her little dress, and Gibbs was struck once again at what a little lady he had.

One day his dainty little lady would no longer need her father to protect her.

Motioning to her to approach he leaned down, "Give me a kiss, my lovely princess."

Throwing her arms around his neck in response, she bestowed several kisses upon him before giggling and running downstairs to wait with her siblings.

Exactly two weeks later the family climbed out of the car and hurried into a restaurant for lunch, in a small town just a couple of hours away from Stillwater, Pennsylvania, home of Grandpa Jackson Gibbs.

Though tired from the duration of the car's confinement thus far, the five cheered up immediately at the opportunity to stretch their legs before they sat in a booth and chose from a menu.

Primly, Kate led them to a spot away from the parking lot and in a whisper shared that the view appeared to look much better over there.

Spying the ripped naugahyde seat cushion Tony started to point out the tear, but Gibbs put a finger to his lips and signaled silence from him.

It was nice to see Katie so excited about eating out in a new place.

The waitress hurried over to help seat them, and Gibbs could not resist a grin when he saw she was a redhead, and an attractive, willowy redhead at that!

Quickly appraising the kids with a knowledgeable air, she pointed at the plastic covered bench seats, "Ok, I will be right back with four booster seats. Hang on, Honeys."

That met with immediate incensed protests from Tony and Kate, annoyed to have to establish their seniority with the stranger.

To add insult to injury, Tim observed helpfully, "Perhaps because you are not much bigger than we are she though you were little, too."

Outraged, Tony responded with as much annoyance as he could funnel into his tone, "Do I look little to you, Tim? No, of course I do not." With that he threw himself into the booth dramatically and settled against the wall, turning his body sideways from the Formica table top.

Kate flounced beside him and crossed her arms defiantly. "Get this straight, Timothy. I am seven but you are only six. You and Abby are the little baby kids in the family and Tony and I get tired of having to explain that to you over and over all the time."

Aligned in this instance with her elder brother, she turned to him and they shared triumphant expressions.

Tim, though, did not want to let the matter rest, continuing to rationalize as he started to climb onto the seat beside Kate.

"Nope," Tony corrected, wagging his finger, "not here, buddy boy."

"Little baby kids sit with Daddy on the opposite side," Kate added smugly. "This is the grown area of the table."


	3. Directing Maneuvers

Directing Maneuvers

Gibbs, in a struggle to free Abby from her buttoned coat, stopped to admonish, "Ok, enough, you two- Tim come over and sit on this side with Abby and me."

Scowling in reply, the child insisted stubbornly, "I want to sit over there, though, Daddy, and they do not own the table."

"If Tim sits over there I want to sit there, too," Abby chimed into the conflict, trying to yank her hand from her father's.

The waitress interrupted with the aforementioned booster seats, a bit battered, but nevertheless, usable.

Kate and Tony exchanged smirks.

She had just brought two.

Helping her set them securely on the seat he swung Abby, then lifted Tim into them, oblivious to their protests. Sliding in between them he raised his eyebrows at his other two as a warning to remove their smirks.

Depending upon the day, the time, and the circumstance, he had to step up and champion one or the other of his children for some reason or another.

Their moods improved positively as they pored over the menu, and Gibbs sat back and marveled at them. They pointed out the side dishes and extras to each other, and conferred over the selections.

By the time the cute waitress returned they were ready for her, having managed to not only navigate the menu, but to make substitutions and exchanges in their final choices.

She turned to Gibbs and regarded him with respect.

Usually dealing with children and their choices took an excruciatingly long time.

Ignoring her stunned expression, he simply added his own selection to her list and watched as she walked away.

His children had divided the crayons and color sheets the waitress left on the tabletop, and worked intensely.

They made him proud, he admitted to himself, leaning back to rest against the back of the cushion.

They shared, and they all concentrated on their task at hand.

Gibbs looked around at the other diners, and focused on a couple with two misbehaving children.

Watching that interaction for a couple of minutes proved enough. He returned to observing his own little team.

Kate and Abby were reading the rhyme on the back of the activity sheet, joining their voices to recite the verse.

All four of the kids had learned to read early, though motivated for different reasons.

Smiling at them, Gibbs momentarily lost himself in sweet reminiscences of each child experiencing the wonders of discovering the written word.

Tony, climbing unbidden onto his lap with the sports section of the paper that Gibbs had set on the floor one rainy Saturday, insisted that Jethro look at the headline above the picture of some basketball players. When his father finished reading the words to him Tony leaned up and patted Jethro on the cheek as he instructed, "Now, Daddy, show me how to do that."

Thus began, at not quite five years old, Tony's road to literacy.

Gibbs conceded that his oldest son had also encouraged his sisters and brother to appreciate reading. Taking his role of big brother seriously he had spent many hours pointing out words in their favorite books, and then coaching them in letters and the alphabet's sounds.

With some prior knowledge then, the other three had picked up the gist of the fundamentals.

Kate's start began when she begged her father to help her decipher aisle signs in the grocery store one Saturday.

Tim found a book on robots when Jethro took them to a local bookstore one Sunday afternoon. Lugging it to where his father studied a how- to manual on building outdoor wood play equipment, he asked hopefully for Jethro to show him how to say the words describing the robots.

The catalyst had arrived for Abby in the form of a pop up "Twas The Night Before Christmas" book. She wanted clarification upon the embossed words she traced with her finger.

Tim's plaintive insistence that he had to use the restroom yanked Gibbs from his reverie, and he hurriedly dealt with the child, supervised the meals, then implemented bathroom visits for the rest before he seated them in the car once again.

Tony entertained him on that last leg of the journey, and Gibbs enjoyed his son's company. His oldest possessed a great sense of humor and a penchant for keeping up with news topics, along with the minutiae from countless topics which interested the child.

Abby and Tim had fallen asleep before their father made it out of the diner parking lot and onto the road.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Gibbs noted that Kate dozed alongside them.

Though he made the children take turns sitting by the windows, truthfully, he preferred having his oldest ride near him on trips. Jethro could not say exactly how, but his eldest possessed an intuitive streak about his father, and uncannily tuned into his dad's thoughts.

Jethro smiled down at Tony, who embraced the passenger seat in front of him, arms wrapped around the headrest but careful to remain belted.

In return, he grinned impishly at his father. "Did you tell Grandpa we would get there after supper?"

Puzzled, Gibbs responded, "No, Tony, but do you have any reason for us to get there then?"

"Nope, I do not, but you have been driving under the speed limit and letting everyone pass us. I just thought you wanted to take your time and be a slowpoke, Dad."

Somewhat chastened, Gibbs shook his head. "I had not even noticed I was the slowest on the road, Son, but thanks for alerting me."

"Just an observation," Tony smiled widely, gaps showing from lost baby teeth. "So why are we letting everyone pass us? I want to at least beat the old folks, Dad, the folks older than you, I mean."

Laughing, Jethro ruffled the boy's hair. "Okay, Son, I'll speed up so as not to embarrass you, but I had just been enjoying the scenery and the pretty weather."

Then, to prove himself a man of his word, he accelerated to a decent speed.

By the time he rolled into Stillwater Tim and Kate had awakened, but Abby still slept deeply, thumb jammed in her mouth and her baby doll dangling from the car seat.

Parking the car in back of Jackson's General Store, Gibbs unfolded himself from the car and stretched, then motioned to his oldest children and pointed towards the house.

Wiggling with excitement, they hastily unsnapped and disembarked. As Jethro unlocked the trunk to grab the suitcases Kate and Tim streaked to the door, slamming it open with animated yells of "Grandpa, Grandpa, here we are!"

Watching them rush through, Jethro laughed out loud. It was good to see his children so eager and so joyful at the prospect of getting to his own father.

Peering around the side of the trunk's lid he glimpsed Tony's legs as the child slid backwards from the backseat cushion and then balanced on the ground. He had freed Abby from her car seat and held her protectively in his arms before setting her gently beside the car. Leaning back inside the vehicle he grabbed her doll and handed it to her before ordering, "Go ahead 'cause Grandpa is waiting for us."

Still not fully awake, she nodded and ambled towards the house, clutching her baby against her.

Tony slammed the door before rounding the car to join his dad.

"Thank you for helping Abby, Son, but why haven't you gone with the rest?" Jethro studied him, surprised that Tony had not raced to the door first.

"I will, Daddy," the child assured him, nodding. "But you need me right now, don't you?" Reaching into the trunk he grabbed one of the bags and lifted it in his arms.

Gibbs grabbed him by his arm and pulled him against him, then leaned over the case to plant a kiss on the top of the child's head. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," came the reply, and juggling the heavy case, Tony made his way to the door just as Jack headed out, balancing Kate on one hip and Tim on the other. Abby clutched his hand adoringly.

Putting them down hurriedly and turning loose of the little girl, he grabbed the suitcase from Tony and wrapped an arm around the child's thin frame. "Look at you! You are practically a grown up now, Tony!" Kissing him softly on the cheek he whispered, "Head on into the kitchen. I guarantee Grandpa has some snacks waiting that you will love."

Tony disappeared and Jack moved the case indoors before walking down the drive to meet his son, weighted down with the remainder of their possessions.

Jack regarded him with amusement. "I thought you were a gunny, son, able to get by with the most meager of possessions and not reliant upon doo dahs and what nots. What's all this frou frou?"

Grinning, he grabbed the remaining bag from the trunk and slammed the lid.

"Yeah, well, see, Dad, that was before the gunny commanded four little troops," his son defended himself. "I liken it to herding cats-"

Then laughing, the two walked into the house and shut the door behind them.

**The front door opening with a creak penetrated his consciousness, and Jethro bolted upright with a start to find Ducky peeping into the room. **

**Gibbs regarded him sheepishly. "That injection knocked me out, Duck. I think I had better stay away from that pain killer. You would not believe the dream I had!"**


End file.
